Monday, July 20, 2015

Congratulations to UNIGIS Southern Africa Student!

Congratulations to Ms Gudani Mammba from UNIGIS Sub Saharan Africa! She
has been awarded a bursary by GISSA, The GI Society for Southern Africa to
attend the Geomatics Indaba 2015 from 11-13 August at the Emperor's Palace,
Ekhuruleni. This is a major Geomatics industry event and is jointly organised
and hosted by SAGI, IMSSA, and GISSA in collaboration with EE Publihers.

As a service to the GIS community GISSA decided to sponsor 5 deserving
Geoinformatics University Students to attend the conference. The sponsorship
will entail payment by GISSA of the conference fees and travel and
accommodation costs.

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Today at the GI_Forum conference in Salzburg, Trimble Navigation Limited and UNIGIS International concluded an agreement offering complimentary licenses to all registered UNIGIS distance learning students worldwide. Under the terms of this agreement, students have free access to eCognition, INPHO, UAS Master, Pathfinder Office, SketchUp Pro and further software technologies for their study assignments and thesis development.

Though best known for GPS technology, Trimble integrates a wide range of positioning technologies including GPS, laser, optical and inertial technologies with application software, wireless communications, and services to provide complete commercial solutions. Its integrated solutions allow customers to collect, manage and analyze complex information faster and easier, making them more productive, efficient and profitable.

The UNIGIS International Association is the world’s premier distance education initiative offering masters and postgraduate diploma / certificate programs in Geographical Information Science and Systems. As a global network of higher education institutions UNIGIS is dedicated to enhancing the competence of GIS professionals worldwide.

Heidi El Hosaini (UNIGIS Manchester) had been named the winner of the annual worldwide UNIGIS Master Thesis competition in October 2014 for her dissertation titled "Locating and positioning solar panels in a 3D city model – a case study of Newcastle". This thesis was developed with sponsorship from the UK Ordnance Survey.

The prize carried an invitation to the GI_Forum Salzburg, where she published and presented her work in a well received talk in the main conference program, and received the 'trophy' and an award certificate. The winner says: "My dissertation demonstrates potential applications and techniques using Ordnance Survey’s 3D dataset. These could be further explored, expanded on a larger scale, and/or researched with respect to their potential business value. In this case, potential customers would include solar panel companies and installers, urban planners, householders and other decision-makers in the solar energy industry."

Accepting award from UNIGIS Chair Prof Josef Strobl

Mrs El Hosaini's studies were completed as part of her Geographical Information Systems MSc programme within the UNIGIS postgraduate, online distance-learning framework that is jointly run by the University of Salford and Manchester Metropolitan University.

Dr Mike Wood, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management and Salford Programme Leader for the UNIGIS programmes, said: “We are delighted with Heidi’s success. Her thesis was truly exceptional and for her to receive such international recognition is fantastic."